WEST LAWN — The story for NorChester in Sunday afternoon’s Berks County Legion League Tournament contest was just about the same as the night before. The Bulldogs had their chances, but couldn’t convert them, and their season came to an end with a 7-4 loss to Twin Valley at Owls Field.

NorChester (14-11, 24-15-1) wound up at 2-2 in the playoffs for the second straight time after joining the league last year, but can look forward to returning all of its starting players next season. The Raiders (17-8) will meet tournament unbeaten Exeter, a 3-2 winner in 12 innings over Boyertown, Monday at 7 p.m.

“It’s tough,” said Bulldog manager Rick Harrison, whose team stranded 14 runners. “Again, we out-hit the other team (12-11) and had runners in scoring position with less than two outs.”

“We didn’t capitalize,” said NorChester second baseman Troy Salerno, one of five Bulldogs with two hits. “The bases loaded, second and third … just like the last game (a 3-2 loss to Exeter on Saturday night). Nobody could do anything but pop out.”

Advertisement

That started right at the beginning as the first two Bulldog batters both popped out to first baseman Brian Olsen in foul territory. Then Twin Valley scored three in the bottom of the inning – two on a two-out double by Billy Reardon – and added a run in the second on a wild pitch.

NorChester, which made nine outs in the air while being blanked through the first four innings, finally created some runs by putting the ball on the ground in the fifth. Chase Line grounded a hit to left to get things started, Jeff Zebrowski singled to right, and Salerno bunted for a hit to load the bases with none out.

Noah Beebe followed with a ground single to left and Dylan Gallagher hit a sacrifice fly to right to cut the deficit to 4-2. But a strikeout and another foul pop to first ended that inning and Twin Valley regained command with three runs in its half.

The Bulldogs continued to battle as Gallagher singled in a run in the seventh and Zebrowski brought in another in the eighth with an infield hit, but they also left five men on base in those two frames. Then they brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth after a leadoff double by Dave Clay and a walk to Blake McCourt.

But that was followed by a fourth foul pop to Olsen, another to the first baseman in fair territory, and a season-ending fly to right.

“Seven popups to the first baseman or the right side,” said Harrison. “A lot of that was when we were ahead in the count. And that makes it more difficult.

“We were there at the end. It’s tough, with the finality of all these tournaments. You’re six outs from making it to regionals and the next day, the season is over. It’s hard to swallow. The kids worked hard.”

The quick turnaround after a tough loss the night before certainly didn’t help the Bulldogs.

“I think it was a combination of a little bit of tiredness,” said Salerno. “The bats were lagging. People weren’t really hitting. It was a horrible loss (Saturday night). You have to turn around and play a game at 1:00 in the afternoon against Twin Valley.”

After the loss, Harrison was able to look back on a good season and forward to a likely better one next year.

“We still had a pretty good season … a 24-win season,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of people didn’t give us a chance with the youth. We’ll have all of our starters back next year. They have a good attitude. We spent a lot of time with each other.”

“We only lose three people,” Salerno added. “It’s definitely something to be proud of. We went from 14 wins last year to 24 wins this year to whatever next year. We’re looking forward to that.”

NOTES

Twin Valley will have to beat Exeter on Monday and Tuesday to win the title. … The top five batters in the Bulldog order – Zebrowski, Salerno, Beebe, Gallagher, and Clay – each had two hits. … Ben Condello threw three scoreless innings in relief for NorChester with six strikeouts in relief of Kutter Endy and Drew Lewis finished up with a scoreless eighth.